Man re-creates pilgrimages of old with trek to Uniontown
In days long past, pilgrims traveled many miles on foot to shrines and other religious sites, seeking spiritual fulfillment. A Pittsburgh-area man is re-enacting that same type of journey again this year at the 68th annual pilgrimage in honor of Our Lady of Perpetual Help.
George Walter, known to most as Pilgrim George, walked many miles from Glenshaw, where he was staying, to Mount St. Macrina to attend the pilgrimage.
Walter started walking Aug. 5, and walked about 15 miles a day, arriving in Uniontown on Friday. He said he slept in a tent in the woods along the way, and he sometimes stayed with people he knew, visiting friends during his journey. He said he also gave talks at churches and before groups along the way.
He doesn’t plan to walk back, noting that he would catch a ride.
“God will provide,” he said.
Walter has visited the pilgrimage about a dozen times, and he said that last year was the first time he had attended since 1988. He called the event a “beautiful way to end a summer pilgrimage” and a place to pray.
The walk to Mount Macrina is nothing compared to where Walter has been. He said he has spent time in Jerusalem and “walked in the footsteps of the prophets.”
His travels, he said, have taken him through 40 countries, including Poland, Norway and the Ukraine, and he spends his time walking, praying and trusting in God.
“God is my father and takes care of me,” he said.
Walter said he lives in his tent in the summer and spends the winter “as a hermit” in prayer wherever he ends up.
Donned in a patchwork blue and white robe, a long beard and no shoes, he said he wears sandals that he fashions out of tires, but he was barefoot at Mount Macrina because it is “holy ground.”
Before he started walking, Walter said, he was a student and later was ordained a deacon. Before being ordained a priest, he said, he “felt called to be a pilgrim” and live a life of prayer.
His longing for that life is something he shares with other people, he said.
“There are always people seeking the truth, and there always have been,” he said, adding that if people are satisfied with the physical life, they do not seek out God.